Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Skyport Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Banks, Oregon 97113
Friday, May 19, 2006 13:00 PDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
During the practical test for a flight instructor certificate, the pilot was asked by the examiner to perform a 180 degree autorotation with a power recovery. He entered the autorotation, executed the 180 degree turn, and initiated the flare at approximately 50 feet agl. He stated that he "failed to roll on enough throttle simultaneously with the flare as the rotor RPM started to decay." He further stated that the examiner told him, "power, power, power," which he interpreted as meaning pull up on the collective. The addition of pitch further decayed the rotor RPM. The helicopter made "a firm level landing," and the main rotor contacted and severed the tail boom. The pilot explained that in his training, he had learned to associate the term "power" with "pull power on the collective" and the term "roll on" with "roll on the throttle." When the examiner told him, "power, power, power," he reacted by applying collective, but the examiner was wanting him to add power by rolling on the throttle. The pilot stated that the accident could have been prevented by maintaining rotor RPM during the power recovery and "proper understanding of commands between DPE [examiner] and PIC."
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The pilot's failure to maintain rotor rpm while performing a simulated autorotation, which resulted in a hard landing. A contributing factor was the pilot's incorrect interpretation of the examiner's instruction to add power.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 5/19/2006 |
| Event Day of the Week | Friday |
| Time of Event | 1300 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Daylight Time |
| Event City | Banks |
| Event State | OREGON |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 97113 |
| Event Date Year | 2006 |
| Event Date Month | 5 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 453458N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1230310W |
| Event Location Airport | Skyport |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | 4S4 |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | On Airport |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Unknown |
| Time of the weather observation | |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | -- |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | -- |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | -- |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | -- |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | -- |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | -- |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | -- |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -- |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | -- |
| Variable Wind Indicator | -- |
| Wind Speed (knots) | -- |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | -- |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 2 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | -- |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 20387 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA ROC |
| NTSB Notification Date | -- |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Oct 3 2006 2:46PM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\JOHB |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N369V |
| NTSB Number | SEA06CA102 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | -- |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Hughes |
| Aircraft Model | 369A |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 191021 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | -- |
| Aircraft Category | Helicopter |
| Aircraft Registration Class | -- |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | -- |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | -- |
| Date of Last Inspection | -- |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | -- |
| ELT Installed | -- |
| ELT Activated | -- |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | -- |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Applebee Aviaiton Inc. |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | Banks |
| Aircraft Owner State | OR |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | -- |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | -- |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | -- |
| Operator City | -- |
| Operator State | -- |
| Operator Country | -- |
| Operator Zip code | -- |
| Operator Code | -- |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | -- |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Instructional |
| Second Pilot on Board | -- |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | HIO |
| Departure City | Hillsboro |
| Departure State | OR |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | -- |
| Departure Time Zone | -- |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | crash at destination city |
| Destination Airport Code | 4S4 |
| Destination City | Banks |
| Destination State | OR |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | -- |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jun 16 2006 7:52PM |
| User who most recently changed record | STAM |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 16 |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |